Recipes for preparing meals were traditionally handed down from parents to children. This process has lead to old family recipes being handed down through many generations. Children once delighted in spending time with their parents being taught techniques for preparing culinary delights. However, the fast pace of modern life has limited the amount of time that the average person has to spend with his or her children and, consequently, cooking appears to have taken a back seat to more important things in life such as social networking and video games. Regrettably, this has lead to a generation of culinarily challenged people. For today's youngsters, even the simple process of boiling an egg may represent an insurmountable challenge that is better left to the experts.
Notwithstanding the above comments, there has recently been a resurgence in the popularity of cooking which has been driven by cooking television programs, such as Iron Chef™ and Master Chef™, for example. These programs have been given cult status and have rekindled a passion for good food in the hearts and minds of young people. Certainly, many restaurants have benefited from this resurgence in food appreciation. However, it has created a dilemma for the culinarily challenged. They have the desire to cook but no ability to do so.
Average Joe may be able to successfully obtain the correct ingredients for a particular recipe from his or her local supermarket, for example. However, following the each cooking step with the correct timing and cooking temperature may prove difficult.
It is generally desirable to overcome or ameliorate one or more of the above mentioned difficulties, or at least provide a useful alternative.